Blossom fest returning to Wooster Square

Food trucks and music and cherry blossoms, oh my!

After two years, the

47th annual Wooster Square Cherry Blossom celebration will be held on Sunday, April 24 at Wooster Square Park in New Haven. News 8’s anchor Stephanie Simoni will be helping welcome the community back and says it is an honor to apart of this.

“At News 8, we pride ourselves on strengthening community ties and I can’t think of a better way than supporting this tradition that is so deeply cherished in the Elm City... It will finally feel like spring in New Haven again,” she said.

There will be live music, food trucks and carts, and free water provided by the Regional Water Authority.

The celebration honors the planting of 72 Yoshino Japanese Cherry Blossom trees in 1974 by the New Haven Historic Commission in collaboration with the New Haven Parks Department and Wooster Square neighborhood residents, according to the events press release.

“We in Wooster Square are delighted to bring back a celebration of our beautiful cherry blossoms, even though it has to be a low key return. The music is (after the blossoms), the centerpiece of the event, and we fully expect people to be dancing again this year,” said Charlotte Murphy of the Historic Wooster Square Association.

Cherry blossoms have made headlines recently as Washington D.C.’s famous trees bloomed early this year. On March 21, the National Park Service tweeted “peak bloom” had arrived. The trees usually reach peak bloom in early April, though last year, the trees also reached peak bloom at the end of March after unseasonably warm weather. The National Cherry Blossom Festival started March 20 and will continue until April 17.